Italian Fashion: Trends from the Milan Spring Collections for 2007

Vintage Looks, Futurist Styles

Vintage-inspired looks and futurist styles dominated the Milan collections. Designers were inspired by many eras of the past, including the boyish, but flirtatious style of 1920's flappers, the very pretty and feminine bows and polka-dots of the 1950's and the rebellious, vamp looks of the 1960's. New and continuing trends included dresses, the Space Age influence, metallic colors, turbans and beading and embroidery.

Dresses were again a big feature of Milan Fashion Week. Cute baby-dolls, micro-minis which can be worn with leggings, 1960's style shift dresses, 20's style fringed flapper dresses and waist less shifts -  all of these were paraded on the runway. Gorgeous long gowns and fluffy, romantic 1950's dresses with bouffant skirts also made an appearance.

Prada's tiny, brightly-colored minis with their extremely high hemlines caused quite a stir, but the designer remarked that they are meant to be tops and worn with leggings.

Armani stated that it is more sensuous to keep the legs covered. His collection featured stylish silk trousers, long gypsy skirts and beautiful long beaded cocktail dresses.

Space-Age

Inspired by designers of the 1960's, such as Mary Quant and movies like Star Wars, many of the fashions were strange space-age designs. These included tight corsets which looked like they were made of steel, large futurist sun-glasses, and sequined cat suits with batwing sleeves.

Metallic

Combined with this space-age theme were clothes in metallic colors, such as Dolce & Gabbana's silver gowns, gold Bermuda shorts, and tiny minis. Metallic accessories like enamel body jewelry, small handbags, and high-heeled silver, bronze or gold sandals looked spectacular.

Silver dresses came in all shapes and sizes in materials ranging from brocade to shiny cloth which looked like plastic. Some male models wore silver shorts.

Prada's high-necked; long-sleeve tunics are reminiscent of uniforms, a theme that the designer often uses. These were worn with brightly-colored turbans worn with these tiny tunics and metallic heels. The satin turbans in startling yellow, green and red added an interesting African look to her collection. Turbans were also used by other designers, such as Moschino, in their designs, while Dolce & Gabbana showed models with turban-shaped head-bands.

Prints

Animal prints in bright colors brought a further touch of African influence to the collections. Sexy leopard, striking zebra and even giraffe prints all made an appearance.

There were also swirling geometric prints, flirty 50's style polka dots, Missoni's printed knits, and all kinds of stripes.

Beading and Embroidery

Roberto Cavalli's collection was more subdued than usual, but his lavishly embroidered and beaded jackets still showed his Florentine origins. He also showed a tiny beaded black dress which came close to having a 'showgirl' look, but was on the right side of sexy.

Gucci's large, embroidered flowers over trousers were a fun look, compared with the more stylish Renaissance-style embroidery of Cavalli.

Other designers, such as Anna Molinari of Blumarine's collection also used elaborate beading, while Armani closed his collection with an elegant silver, beaded gown with a cut-out back.

There is a style for almost everyone this year. Those who favor feminine, vintage styles can wear bouffant 1950's dresses, while more tomboyish types may like the waist less shift dresses of the 60's. The main flaw with Milan Fashion Week was perhaps that, as Vogue editor, Anna Wintour remarked with a smile, it looked to the past too much. She said that she was looking forward to Paris.

By Lisa-Anne Sanderson